Everyone's favorite fantasy television series, Game of Thrones, is coming to an end soon. While fans are still working their way through the stages of grief, showrunners D.B Weiss and David Benioff have already moved on to a new project called Confederate.
According to our sister company, Shadow & Act, the duo is producing a television series for HBO that "chronicles the events leading to the Third American Civil War. The series takes place in an alternate timeline, where the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution. The story follows a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone — freedom fighters, slave hunters, politicians, abolitionists, journalists, the executives of a slave-holding conglomerate and the families of people in their thrall."
And Black Twitter, among many other groups of people, are highly offended.
A civil war has broken out between people who are outraged by the show's plot and the network.
Perhaps in effort to head this sort of criticism off, HBO did announce that two prominent black producers, Nichelle Spellman (Justified, The Good Wife) and Malcolm Spellman (Empire and the upcoming Foxy Brown series on Hulu), will be joining the Confederate team as executive producers and writers for the show.
Some individuals tweeted that they would be willing to give the show a chance.
Why is everyone so butt hurt about a TV show? @HBO strives to produce good content! #Confederate will be a hit! History can't be erased! ????????
— JT Grondin???????? (@jtygrondin) July 20, 2017
Tagging @MalcolmSpellman cause that's what I do. Let's see what this Confederate team puts together. Could be interesting.
— Caz (@caz) July 19, 2017
It looks like they have good writers:
Nichelle Tramble Spellman (“Justified,” “The Good Wife”) and Malcolm Spellman (“Empire”)— atypicallinguist (@atypicalinguist) July 19, 2017
1/ Can we hope they use it as giant platform for using "too close for comfort" dialogue to criticize today's Confederates? That's my hope.
— Michael Nardozzi (@MichaelNardozzi) July 20, 2017
Though a trailer has yet to be released, skepticism and flat-out blatant resistance to the show is at an all time high.
The writers of a fantasy show with no black people cant wait to write a fantasy show where the black roles are… slaves
— Ira Madison III (@ira) July 19, 2017
give me the confidence of white showrunners telling hbo they wanna write slavery fanfic
— pilot (@pilotbacon) July 19, 2017
Note who says, about HBO’s #Confederate, just ‘give it a chance’ White people. Who have never had to worry about representation
— Jeremy Gaudette (@jerm_me) July 20, 2017
I don't care if it is done tastefully as possible.
The VERY premise is DISGUSTING.
Especially now.
Who are you pandering to?
— Unfazed (@unfazed_post) July 19, 2017
The people who think this HBO show is a good idea are probably the same people who think Sally Hemings was Jefferson's lover
— Mel-leficent (@jane_anon) July 19, 2017
Twitter also had some ideas of what HBO could do instead of investing in Confederate:
1.
Pick up the recently canceled WGN show, Underground'.
If HBO wants a series about the Civil War so bad, here's an idea – PICK UP UNDERGROUND.
— ReBecca Theodore (@FilmFatale_NYC) July 19, 2017
Just like Sense8 fans, Underground fans can't seem to get over the cancellation of their favorite critically-acclaimed show after only two seasons.
Since the cancellation, fans have been petitioning for any major network or streaming service to pick it up. Although it seems unlikely that HBO would pick up the show when it seems to have its heart set on Confederate, you can't blame a fan for trying.
It's so messed up that a show like Underground gets cancelled but @HBO green lights this Confederate mess. Keep it.
— Azalea Dunn ???????????????? (@AzaleaDunn) July 19, 2017
2. Flip the script.
Many users offered alternatives to the Confederate scenario by suggesting that the roles in history be reversed pre and post civil war.
Or, orrrrrr an Alt-History series where the Native Americans ended up enslaving the pilgrims…
— Obama's America (@LiveLEEhud) July 19, 2017
How about a show where blacks kidnapped whites from Europe & Made them slaves to colonize America. We get along w/the Indians though. Lol.
— JeVarn O'Neal (@jevarn_o) July 20, 2017
I'll watch if the slaves aren't black
— DigitalNegro (@Digitalnegr0) July 19, 2017
3.
Horrible concepts far better than Confederate.
Still others took their disdain to its logical conclusion, and suggested that just about anything HBO wanted to air would be better than Confederate.
@HBO, Instead Of #Confederate, how about a show where we watch real life autopsies? Schedule it for lunchtime. #InsteadOfConfederate
— Nerdy Deeds (@ArtistBobStone) July 20, 2017
@HBO, #InsteadOfConfederate how about a white couple in yellow face running a Chinese Restaurant, making hitler quotes into fortune cookies.
— Valtier (@Valtiernan) July 20, 2017
4. No show at all.
Finally, some asked HBO to reconsider their decision, and to pull the plug on Confederate now.
@HBO, about #Confederate…let's not and say we did. #InsteadOfConfederate
#Confederate— Nerdy Deeds (@ArtistBobStone) July 20, 2017
Hey @HBO, Confederate would be much more dynamic if the alternate timeline explored an America that doesn't exploit black pain for a change.
— Toni Brannagan (@tonebrann) July 20, 2017
What if black members of the Screen Actors Guild boycott @HBO's #Confederate?
No slaves. No show. ✊???? pic.twitter.com/RxZkOZg3Wd
— Marcus Philippus (@MP4TH) July 20, 2017
We'll have to wait and see if HBO listens to any of its Twitter critics; given the networks relationship with Weiss and Benioff, however, that seems unlikely.
